- Are you afraid of death?

- I don't know. I don't think I can be afraid of something I know nothing about.

"What is it? Another dream? Who are these people?"

It was definitely a dream. I was standing in the forest, looking at two people - a man and a woman, sitting with their backs turned on me. I did not recognize them, I was sure I had never seen them before. They did not notice me at all and were talking very loudly as if purposely letting me hear them.

- Yesterday I heard an interesting story. It was about a fairy who lived in the garden, on top of the cherry blossom tree, and a prince who fell in love with her. He was coming to the garden to see her every day, and everybody was saying that she bewitched him and made him insane, that she would only cause him sorrow and demise because the two of them could not be together, because the two of them belonged to different worlds.

But the prince was not greedy. He only came to watch her - he watched her fly, watched her sleep, watched her play with birds and butterflies, he did not even talk to her once. Prince's father, the king, was tired of his son's obsession and decided to put an end to it. When the prince was away on the battlefield, he called for a kingdom's most powerful magician and ordered him to destroy the garden with everything inside it - every bug, every weed, every creature, everything to the last leaf had to vanish.

The magician had no choice but to obey - he cast a magic fire spell and set the garden on fire, killing everything inside it. Although the spell was powerful, the fairy did not want to give up her home that easily, so the fire was burning for weeks, until the fairy finally exhausted her powers and died.

- What a sad story.

All of a sudden everything turned black and I could not see anything anymore. The people's voices went silent and then they themselves disappeared. I saw a tiny flicker far away from me so I decided to follow it. I walked and walked, and walked, it seemed like I could never reach it. But I started getting closer, the flames became bigger, brighter, hotter. What I saw shook me to the core - it was prince Dorian, his black armor and cape were drenched in blood, his sword was dripping blood as well. He was standing in front of the burning cherry blossom tree, tears running down his cheeks. His eyes were empty, lifeless, the bright blue color turned grey, like the sky promising inevitable rain.

I tried to call his name, but he did not hear me. He did not see me either, he was just clenching his bloody sword, shedding tears from his dull eyes. I woke up.

"That was a bizarre dream... It must be because of what happened yesterday, I should just shake it off. It surely means nothing."

But it was a lie. It surely did mean something to me because the feeling of emptiness and overwhelming sorrow was filling my soul to a suffocating point. I decided to go to the training grounds and rid my mind of that unpleasant feeling by exhausting my body instead.

The area was almost empty - a dozen knights sparring with swords; some were jokingly pretending to fist fight, some were weightlifting or stretching, and the overall mood was quite cheerful despite the windy weather.

"Raphael and the rest of the knights are probably training with horses at the Alred training field. I wonder if Dorian is with them..."

I took my training sword and started my usual routine when I heard a familiar sarcastic female voice behind my back,

- What do we have here? My new friend swinging her little sword left and right?

I turned around and saw Lilith standing all tall and gorgeous with her own sword in her right hand. She was dressed unusually - black knee-high leather boots, slim brown pants, a black shirt outlining her strong arms and shoulders, and a dark brown vest, the one the Alred knights were wearing during the training. Her shiny brown hair was tied in a high ponytail, fluttering left and right with every blow of the wind.

"Perhaps it has something to do with the confidence she has when she is far from the judging eyes, but even these simple clothes make her look incredibly powerful and handsome."

- Lady Lilith! What are you doing here?

- I came here because you blew me off yesterday, and I still haven't received your proper thanks. How are your feet? Is it alright for you to be out like this already?

Although I was happy she was sincerely worried about me, I still couldn't get used to her "real" self, talking all boldly and honestly. I smiled and shook my head.

- I'm alright, it was not all that serious. And thank you for your gift and concern. It looks like I'm just getting more indebted to you every time we meet.

Lilith's expression became somewhat embarrassed, I saw her face turn pink for a moment before she finally regained her strict demeanor with a helping cough.

- Since you do admit that, how about a friendly sparring match? You'll repay me for my concern and I will evaluate your swordsmanship skills. Sounds good?

The idea was definitely quite appealing to me - I did want to have a sparring match today to assess my improvement, and I also did not really have any means of repaying Lilith my debt, therefore, I agreed to her offer.

- Alright, I'll go easy on you at first and adjust my tactics if needed.

She took a relaxed position with her sword pointing down indicating that she was ready and did not fear my attacks at all. I charged at her the way I usually did with Raphael - with all the strength and speed I had, however, she simply took one step to her left, with her sword still hanging loosely in her hand. She kept dodging my attacks like that for a while, she obviously did not see the need to even rise her hand, all she had to do was move her body around, avoiding my approaching movements.

"Wow, I feel like I'm in a movie where the protagonist is being trained for the fight by a very proficient master. She is not even lifting her sword, how amazing is that?!"

As if she was able to read my mind, Lilith finally lifted her sword and started her attacks. She was moving effortlessly, it felt like her sword was growing out f her right hand - every swing was light but precise, and although she did tell me she would go easy on me and I somehow managed to keep up, I still felt incredibly weak and helpless against her attacks.

I was finally getting tired. My grip was looser, sweat was running down my face and back, my every move was heavy and cumbersome; Lilith, on the other hand, was still standing strong and confident as if this sparring was just a children's play for her. I guess she noticed my fatigue and offered to stop the match, I had no intentions to disagree.

- You look entirely exhausted, miss Yoona. Who has been training you so far?

- Sir Raphael.

Lilith clicked her tongue and smiled sarcastically.

- That silver head? Figures. Come on, let's take a break for a bit, I don't want my first-ever friend to die because of me.

"I am her first friend?"

Lilith threw her sword on the ground and grabbed my hand enthusiastically. She started walking without saying a word, and although I said that I was alright earlier, that sparring must have been too much for my feet, following her was torturous for me.

We ended up in the area behind the knight's wing - it was a small yard behind the building where the palace knights lived, one side was facing the palace's training grounds, the other - the area's gates. Because its residents were away in the field, the place was so quiet and secluded, that it was possible for us to hear our breaths and heartbeats.

Lilith sat down on the bench next to the building's entrance and gestured for me to sit next to her. I was still feeling awkward around her - her mere presence was intimidating, I felt the same way the first time I met Raphael. Her gaze was sharp, her facial expressions were cold, and although I already knew that she was somewhat fond of me, at times when she was silent, all I wanted to do was run away.

- Uhm, lady Lilith?

- What?

- How are you so good with the sword?

Lilith fixed her still perfectly styled hair, then scratched her chin pretending to contemplate the question.

- I've been training since I was a child, my father was teaching me for fun but I took those lessons seriously. I guess everything else was just watching the others and practicing by myself? I did have some training in the academy but they just polished what I was already able to do.

- You really are amazing, it's a shame you can't really be a knight.

The lady leaned closer to me all of a sudden, watched my face for a while, then smiled and pulled her face away. My heart began to race once again.

- So, when are you going to confess that you are not a real knight?

Her question caught me off guard. True, even a fool would have guessed that I was a fake if they watched our sparring earlier, but I still did not know if I had the right to confess just like that.

"Well, she is engaged to Dorian, so it should be fine."

- Well, now, I guess? Since you have already figured it out, there is no need for me to pretend anymore. But can you please still pretend that I am a knight? I don't want to cause prince Dorian any more trouble.

- Sure, whatever. I just hope Dorian will not force you to go to the battlefield. Poor thing, although I do admit that he gained some muscles, I really have little faith in his safe return. I don't think the Empress will allow it.

- What's the deal with the Empress hating him so much?

Lilith rounded her eyes at me as if I asked her why the cows did not fly.

- You don't know? How is that possible?!

- Well, I'm not originally from here, so...

- Ugh, seriously. Alright, I'll tell you. It's both a romantic and horrifying story. So our Emperor, Benjamin Dio, once raided a small neighboring empire called Yaron. It is said that Yaron was quite eager to sabotage Arcadia's trading with other kingdoms therefore, the Emperor decided to subside them a little but ended up wiping their military clean.

In order to set the truce, the king of Yaron Thime Torrade offered his daughter Agatha as Benjamin's concubine, however, when Benjamin saw Agatha he instantly fell for her and decided to make her his wife, hence the Empress of Arcadia. The only problem was that Agatha was already engaged to another nobleman and was in love with him so the idea of marrying another man she has never even seen before was unbearable for her.

The man she was engaged to, planned an escape for the two of them but they were caught by the Emperor's spies and the man was executed for the abduction of the Imperial fiancee. I think that was the trigger for the Empress's hatred towards the Emperor and Arcadia itself.

A year after their marriage, the Empress got pregnant which made her even more depressed and miserable. She was desperately trying to get rid of her pregnancy - she tried falling down the stairs, kicked herself in the stomach with sticks, and a horse even punched her once with its legs, but the child inside her was still alive. She could have tried killing herself, probably, but I guess she was not yet strong enough to do so.

When she could not get rid of the pregnancy, she threatened the Emperor that she would strangle every child that she would give birth to, but Benjamin paid no attention to her threats. Perhaps there was still love left in him, or maybe he just pitied her, but he never tried to punish her for any of her tantrums.

Strangely enough, when Luther was born, the Empress suddenly calmed down. They say that when she thought about how that child could not give up on his life in her womb and was even lucky enough to be born healthy and beautiful, she just could not bring herself to kill him. She ended up loving him instead.

However, two years after, the Emperor returned from another war with a baby in his arms - it was Dorian. While he was on the battlefield, Benjamin met a commoner woman named Maria and fell in love with her the same way he did with the Empress. Maria died right after giving birth to Dorian and the Emperor decided to take the child with him and acknowledge him as his son.

The Empress was obviously burning with rage - the man who ruined her life brought in a bastard child for her to raise, when just not so long ago he was swearing his love to her. I guess that broke her sanity completely. She hates the Emperor, she hates Arcadia, she hates Dorian... Perhaps her desperate desire to make Luther the only successor is her way of taking revenge...

The Empress's story was indeed tragic - she lost everything to a man she didn't even know, just to be betrayed by that very man in the end. I knew I could sympathize with her, sometimes revenge is the only thing that keeps us going, keeps us sane till the very end. But one thing the Empress was blind to - her desperate resolve to crown her son was slowly destroying that very son's life, along with the lives of everyone else.

"It's always children who have to suffer from their parents' mistakes. Neither Luther nor Dorian deserves to be casualties of her revenge... Will she ever let go of her misery?"